Hell Teacher Nube 91

For a teacher who works so often with the dead, Nube may not be the best to appreciate the value of living. But when an incident traps him into desperation, he may pull something that may break all the rules of life...and death!

#91: The Resurrection Jutsu

88.
SFX: Gacha
Bookbag: Doumori Elementary
Nube: Well, I’m going.

89.
Hiroshi: Ah! Nube’s doing a night-flight! That rumor of him being chased by a loan shark was true!
(TN: “Night flight” is the Japanese term “yonige”, which is “running off during the night)
SFX: Dobe!
Nube: Dummy—I’m just going on a hike inspection.
Hiroshi: But that’s a rucksack for emergency school usage.
Nube: I don’t have the money to buy my own rucksack!
Narrator: On that day, Nube departed for a hike inspection. To him, it should have been a calm early-summer day…

90.
Nube: Hmm…this is quite good scenery. I’ve decided that this year’s hike will be here.
Voice: …Help me…
Nube: …It’s from beneath that cliff. However, it isn’t the voice of a living person.
Nube: It’s within this abandoned mine…

91.
Nube: !!
Nube: This hiker pitifully slipped their leg on this cliff and came to not move. The weather-beatenness in this place is…hold on, I’ll hold your rights now…
SFX: Zuzu…
Nube: A landslide!? Damn, the posts…!!
SFX: Gogogogogogo
Nube: Uaa!!
SFX: Dododododo

92.
SFX: Ka…
Nube: Uuh…what happened.
SFX: Gara gara gara
Nube: The entrance has been plugged up…It’s for 20m…s**t…the side of the school should know that I came to this mountain. I can only wait for rescue…
Narrator: And so, Nube’s survival life began. He put himself into Zen meditation so he could preserve his presence of mind…
Narrator: Preserved rain water and used it as drinking water
Narrator: Moderate exercises…

93.
Narrator: Blessedly since there were emergency crackers and canned goods inside the rucksack, he had no problem with food. Also, there were growing edible mushrooms that he thought was a kind of Shimeji within the cave…
(TN: “Shimeji Mushrooms” are a group of edible mushrooms usually found in East Asia and Northern Europe. However, it isn’t something good to eat raw due to their bitterness)
Narrator: But he hadn’t come to be saved at all! Typically, when they pass over 70 hours in a closed-off space with that sort of darkness, a human is said to go mad…Nube can well endures many times that amount of time…!
Nube: Haa haa
Narrator: However…he too finally..
Nube: Uuh…
SFX: Yoro
Nube: Hee—y, someone--! I’m here!! Come and save me! Find me!!

94.
Nube: S*…s**t. No…my head has become strange. So…someone.
Nube: I want to talk to someone. Anyone is fine…a talking partner…
Nube: Haa haa
Narrator: Long ago…It was said that a monk called Saigyou was unable to endure his isolation while training on Mt. Kouya and thought out an abominable secret art for resurrecting the dead.
(TN: “Mt. Kouya” or “Kouyasan” is a series of mountains in Wakayama Prefecture, notable as the home of the Kouyasan Shingon sect of Japanese Buddhism)
Nube: I summon the water of today; I summon any water. There is just a voice where you can’t see form; there is just a sound where you can’t see figure.
Narrator: Its usage is to gather up human bones and make them into a person…it is a forbidden spell that is unthinkable by a god for even gods…

95.
Nube: Resurrection Jutsu
(TN: In this case, “resurrection” was written as “hankon”, which is “anti-soul” literally but has a meaning of “recalling the soul of the dead”. In this case, it will be “resurrection”)
SFX: Goki | Shuuu…. | Shuuu… | Shuuu | Goki
Nube: Surpass even the 7th and 8th current.
SFX: Guki Guki
“Person”: Oooh Oooh
Narrator: Surely now, Nube is unable to endure his isolation and has reached the same mental condition as Saigyou…
Nube: Come down and tell me of your play. Come and loiter around.
Nube: No!!
SFX: Gasha
Nube: What am I doing? Am I…reviving the dead!? That thing shouldn’t be forgiven! This is an act of giving life and playing with it…that’s it…
Nube: !!

96.
SFX: Goki…Goki…
Nube: !!
“Girl”: Ukya~~
SFX: Bari bari
Nube: Wa—

97.
SFX: Ta!
Nube: I succeeded!?
SFX: Dote!
Nube: He…hey!
Nube: It can’t be: her energy is weakening! That isn’t unreasonable: she was a corpse until earlier.
Nube: But…that difficult jutsu…it can’t be, it was successful…

98.
Nube: It isn’t that I’ve done this outrageous thing? Reviving the dead…it’s sacrilege to god…
Nube: She has a license and note implements inside: Sugita Kotomi: 22 years old. N? This envelope is…
SFX: Kasa
Kotomi: Uuuh.
Nube: Hold on; you’ve been returned to life with great pains. Here, water.
SFX: Goku goku | Paaa…
Kotomi: Yum…yum…

99.
SFX: Goku goku
Nube: Right…I can return her body with the Resurrection Jutsu, but for stabilizing it, the willpower to live is necessary.
Nube: Saigyou used this jutsu, but he wasn’t forgiven by God: the person he revived was said to die immediately as a mere zombie…but…I’m different…
Nube: I revived this girl…
Kotomi: ZZZ…
Nube: Though it’s sacrilege to God…the Resurrection Jutsu…was a success…

100.
Kotomi: Nube!!
Nube: Here
SFX: Pon
Kotomi: Kya kya
Nube: The willpower to live: to move the body.
Kotomi: Sweat, sweat: this feels good!
Nube: To eat…
Kotomi: Yum yum
SFX: Musha musha
Nube: To sleep…
Kotomi: I’m happy to snore.
Nube: Wanting to live…thinking that it’s good to live will stabilize the body of the girl.

101.
Nube: My loneliness disappeared. Thanks to this girl, I can regain my normal thoughts.
Kotomi: Nube! Look, look!
Nube: Oh, a snake!
Nube: Well then, are we locked in together with it…alright, how about we have kabayaki?
(TN: Kabayaki is a meal made of seafood (generally) broiled and dipped in soy sauce before being grilled. Usually it is made with eel)
Kotomi: With snake?
Kotomi: Nube, you know many things. I too certainly know of many things before I became bones.
Nube: Aah. But they’re worthless. It’s best that you don’t remember them, because you’re making a fresh start.
SFX: Supa
Kotomi: But I do remember a bit.
Nube: Huh, of what?

102.
Kotomi: This…somehow the person I wanted to say this to is I think is the one who is the most glad I’m alive. From now on…
Nube: Eh…? Fro…from now on!?
Kotomi: I forgot… (? ? ? U~~h…)
Nube: Ho…
SFX: Doki doki doki
Kotomi: ZZZ…
Nube: Thank you. Thanks to you, I’ll be saved. If we get out, I’ll call you my little sister…

103.
Creature: Ki ki
Nube: Ho…hold on.
Kotomi: ?
SFX: Tata…
Kotomi: What’s wrong, Nube!?
Nube: It’s a weasel…! There was a snake too…I thought this was strange but it can’t be…can’t be…!!
SFX: Kiki
Nube: Aha…ha…in this place…
SFX: Gara!
Nube: An exit…Ahaha…
Nube: We can get out! Outside! Great!
Kotomi: Great, great, outside, outside

104.
Nube: It’s fine. It’s narrow but we can pass through somehow.
Kotomi: I’ll push your butt.
Nube: Alright, just a bit more. We’ll be saved!!
SFX: Gui gui
Kotomi: ?
Nube: We did it…we’re alive, we’re alive…we’ve gotten out; Kotomi’s gotten out too!
Kotomi: I’m glad. But I can’t go with you.
Kotomi: Thank you, it was extremely fun. This life of this short interval…

105.
Page: Posthumous Writing
Nube: !!
Kotomi: But I’ve remembered…I…the boyfriend I loved 8 years ago died and…I…committed suicide…
SFX: Gata gata gata...
Nube: Stop that! You’re wrong! You’ve already started anew! Forget your past. Live. Don’t lose your willpower…
Nube: To live…
SFX: Boro | Gashi | Gara gara gara

106.
SFX: Hyuuu
Nube: God! Is this your answer!? Are you saying I can’t give life to people? You fool!!
Voice: Nube
Nube: I’m…alive…

TN: Honestly, we sort of figured that Kotomi's fate was sealed the moment he found her "words of departure" as he revived her. The fact that she wanted to die in the first place was the key to her ultimate and final decision to abandon her new life, and there really was nothing he could do about it. No matter how much someone can live a life, the decision to die is a permanent one, even if it can sometimes feel like a selfish act. It would have been interesting to see Kotomi overcome the concept of "death" and choose to start over, but in a way she would be a person trapped within the boundaries set by someone else as opposed to herself, manipulated by Nube as opposed to living the life she wanted to live.

This chapter in a way hit on some really heavy concepts that I didn't expect would be handled so mature in such a juvinille genre as a shonen manga. The idea of Nube going crazy and actually choosing and attempting to fight God in reviving a person just to keep his sanity is a desperate measure of a desparate man trying to survive in a scenario where he just sees no end. The idea of Nube breaking the respected rules of spiritualists just to keep his sanity is a sad one, one he probably would have never attempted if he was in a condition to do so. He knew the rules of life and death, but he himself thought he was enough to defy it and get away with it if only to survive a mental breakdown that would have taken even the best of them down. But while he nearly won, fate just showed it was never meant to be and that his real life was with the living. While I do have tiny nitpicks on the chapter (the irony of Nube taking emergency supplies just before getting trapped in a mine, the convenience of Kotomi finding the letter at that crucial moment), it's enough to be ignored for what was a really sad chapter, one where even Nube can't escape the respected and honest rules of spiritualists...